Play John Chenault's Snake! online

How to play

To play John Chenault's Snake! online, wait for the game to prepare, then press Play to start the 1984 MS-DOS edition in your browser. Choose single-player, two-player, or versus-computer mode; no manual installation is needed.

Steer your snake toward randomly appearing food to make it grow. Last as long as you can without hitting a wall or your own body; both survival time and length contribute to your score. Reaching certain lengths earns bonus points and brings special items onto the screen. Chomps lets you cross your own body, while the yen sign shortens the snake but temporarily makes it move faster. In versus-computer mode, watch out for four small rival snakes as well.

An early Snake for the IBM PC

John Chenault's Snake! is notable as one of the first Nibbles clones for the IBM PC. Its three modes go beyond solo play, including a head-to-head option: hitting the other player's snake scores points and shrinks it, while hitting your own body or a wall ends the round. The ASCII presentation gives this edition a distinctly early-PC feel.